It is a disadvantage of the known art that, when the preparation of an explosive charge takes place at room temperature, plastics-bonded charges do not, or only to a very limited degree, permit the utilization of the favorable properties of a bonding agent, thus for all practical purposes limiting known methods to the pressure-forming of non-thermoplastically bonded substances which frequently exhibit inadequate mechanical properties.
Plastics-bonded explosive charges of simple shape, so-called briquettes, have in the past been isostatically warm-pressed in pre-heated rubber bags at a temperature of 120.degree. C. (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California/Livermore, 1977; USRL-52350, distr. of doc. unlimited). These laboratory experiments were carried using the per se known thermoplastic high-yield explosives of the LCX-14-0 and LX-14-1 types (explosives based on cyclotetramethylene tetranitramine (Octogen) of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), with the charges being successfully tested with respect to their performance and their mechanical and thermal properties.
The method described in the above-mentioned document is not suitable for a series production of practical precision charges, i.e., of charges for use with conventional arms. It is uneconomical and limited to the direct production of only the simplest geometrical shapes.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus facilitating the safe production of precision charges of high homogeneity and density, shaped with at least partial rotational symmetry and, in particular, of thermoplastically bonded charges at a temperature elevated relative to room temperature.
A further object of the present invention is to provide such a method and apparatus which is suitable for the series production of such charges.